Thank You India

As I mentioned yesterday, after having an online conversation with a friend about India, I realized I have a lot of photos from those couple of days of our Nepal trek that I hadn't put online. In fact I have so many hundreds of photos from Nepal that there are MANY that have never seen the light of day. These photos are from towards the end of our trek when we got to the area of Nepal near the India border. We went over into India for one night and stayed at this beautiful cabin next to the Jogmai Tea Estate in the town of Meghma, India, which is not far from Darjeeling. I still have a box of Meghma tea in my cupboard, which is organic, and very good! So anyway here are some more photos from my trip. Enjoy! I'll be gone this weekend at my church's women's retreat in Huntsville, so that should be really nice. I'm looking forward to it!

Madan Tamang, owner of the Jogmai Tea Estate, and Brian Williams, Director of the Red Panda Network (RPN), walk in the mist on the tea plantation grounds. Madan has a passion for rhododendrons as well and is restoring many native rhododendrons to his land, and reforesting with other trees as well. Here is an interesting interview with him on TheSimpleLeaf website. RPN leads eco-treks through Nepal for other travelers also if you're interested - check them out!
Brian, Sonam (behind), Madan, and Mickey Mestel (a fellow trekker) walk along the path.
I don't think this is even taken at Madan's tea plantation but another one, but it shows the way the tea grows, and I think it's a cool photo. This is inside the gorgeous cabin where we stayed. Very upscale and very moderately priced and a world apart from the places most trekkers stay when trekking through Nepal!! This is Brian on the far left wall, Tim Gorski (Director, Cultural Film Fund), and Mickey and Madan in the background.
A close up of some of the tools used in processing the tea, when it's being dried.
Madan tells us about how he dries and processes the tea. No tea is drying right now because it wasn't the season for it to be drying.
This was the vehicle we drove to Meghma in. Most of the time we trekked but for this part into India we all piled into this tiny vehicle, WITH our gear. So that would like oh gosh I need to double check this but at least 9 or 10 people plus gear. That doesn't count the driver.
Yep we got a flat tire on the way too, and I've never mentioned that! These were obviously the infamous "retreads."
Across the street from Madan's estate is this. If I remember correctly, it is a gompa which is a Zen Buddhist temple but it's also housing a bunch of artifacts that Madan's father or grandfather got from Tibet many years ago. The building on the right is where all the artifacts or gods-n-goddesses are which I'll show in a sec.
A close up of the wall.
A close up of the stupa, the dome shape on top of the gompa (monastery).
Another close-up of the wall, with tibetan prayer flags.
Inside the building were all these statuettes. There were hundreds of them! These were on the second floor of the building. The first floor was the more traditional gompa, or monastery, where the prayers take place. The sceond floor was almost like a museum with all these statuettes and artifacts.
Some little cups lined the walls near the glassed-in statuettes.
Some candles were lit.
Madan spins a giant prayer wheel clockwise, inside the gompa. Buddhists believe that spinning the prayer wheels, which are printed with the Tibetan prayer mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, reverses any bad karma you have and help you on the path to enlightenment.

All photo Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

i was a wild child...

Zen Buddhist gods and goddess statuettes in a museum on the border of India-Nepal. ! A conversation on Facebook with a friend reminded me of the one day we spent there in India, and going back through my photos I realized just how many I have never shared... I plan to include a whole bunch of pictures tomorrow from this part of my trek in a blog post tomorrow, and here's a teaser...
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

My boyfriend lives in Cypress, and that is where I went to high school (Cy-Fair High School). Cypress - just west of Houston is not a place I used to visit often and though I had some great times and great friends, a lot of "bad things" happened to me in high school also and it was a very tumultuous time at home, and in my life. So every time I would drive down FM 1960, which turns into Highway 6, toward Doug's place, I would drive right by my old house. You can see it from the road, and the first time I realized that I was driving past it I was like (to Doug), "Oh my GOD that was the house I lived in during high school! Look! I used to sneak out and go to that market and buy cigarettes! In fact that was where I smoked cigarettes for the first time!" So it was a major blast from the past. I drove by it umpteen times during December and then, one time I decided to stop by and take some pictures, and here they are.

Mind you I was a bit of a wild child in high school. My friends would spend the night because we could easily come in at our curfew, set the alarm, pretend to go to bed, and then quietly as a mouse sneak back down the stairs (we knew exactly which one squeaked), turn off the alarm, quietly open the back door, and go sit outside by the pool. We had it down pat. We'd sit outside at the pool for 5 minutes to make sure no one woke up. That way if they did, we could just say we were out there talking and smoking a cigarette (my mom knew I smoked back then). Then when no one came out (they never did), we'd climb over my fence and to the M&M market that was right behind my house - where someone would pick us up (or we'd have the friend's car parked). Boy we had that routine down pat. We'd stay out til all hours of the morning. At least I can tell my kids I know all the tricks so they better not even think they will get away with it!! My mom was a bit naive about such things... Maybe benign neglect?

Anyway...when I saw the house it was very weird, because I did not recognize it. I mean I knew exactly where it was, and which house it was, but when I saw it, I hadn't remembered it looking exactly like that. Or the yard being so small. But the first thing I thought was, of course, the time the guy dumped me on my front lawn, still too drunk to walk, after I was date raped and left me like a worthless piece of trash. I have written about that night of my life on here before, a couple times, but this was just all very weird to go back there. All the memories. My first boyfriend. My first truly "best friend." First time smoking. All the good and all the bad. That was the beginning of my journey into adulthood, my young adulthood and those were not good ways to be initiated into adulthood. My college years would prove to be much better.

This is the house I grew up in, during high school (moved there in 10th grade).
This is the view behind the house. We had a covered pool, which is what this is, and you can see it right off of Hwy 6.
M&M Food market where I used to buy my Ritz Menthol cigarettes. When I was taking pictures of the market and my house the guy who works there came out and was wondering why I was shooting pics. He didn't like it!
Do you see that little green electrical box? That is what we would step onto after climbing on the fence.

Firefox article and my book!

Red panda in the Himalayan foothills of eastern Nepal, near the India border
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

I know, I know, all my blog posts lately just talk about recent articles but several have come out recently, and this one I'm really excited about! I've actually been checking the National Wildlife magazine website nearly every day in anticipation of this piece, which I knew was in the Feb/March 2009 issue which I knew came out some time in January. Hence, the obsessive checking. And here it is! As you all probably know, I traveled to Nepal last November, wait that would be November of 2007, trekking through the Himalayan foothills in search of the endangered red panda. The article is called Fighting for the Firefox: Nepal’s red panda is getting help from a small group of local forest guardians, but the highly endangered mammal still faces a troubled future as its habitat is lost to deforestation.

The first paragraph starts out...

IT’S AFTERNOON in eastern Nepal, near the India border, and a fine mist fingers its way over the broadleaf temperate forest. We’ve pitched camp near a giant mossy stone, carved all over with the words Om Mani Padme Hum, the ancient Buddhist mantra of compassion. I’ve flown halfway around the world, trekked on treacherously steep paths for days, endured squatting toilets and camped in freezing weather just for a chance to get a rare firsthand look at efforts to save one of the world’s most endangered mammals: the red panda.

In other news, I've been working hard on my book, writing new content, and rearranging my first few chapters into a cohesive story. I can write a feature article like it's nothing, since I've been doing it for nearly a decade and a half, but this is my first book and wrapping my head around the overall structure is challenging - but I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. I've cleared my plate of other tasks and made it my only focus for the time being. The first chapter in the book, The Making of a Christian Evolutionist, talks about how I came to be a Christian who accepts evolution. It takes the reader from me as a naive but faithful young child, through some challenging life situations and to the point where I became an atheist in high school and college, then ultimately back to the Christian faith. But of course during college, I became educated as an evolutionary biologist/ecologist. The chapter tells the story of my life, in a nutshell.

The next chapter is titled - as it stands now - The Fish Wars. This introduces the whole debate over evolution and creationism from the perspective of me teaching biology at the community college where I worked for several years, and the interactions with my students. This chapter gives a good, simple overview of what evolution actually is - and what it isn't. The next chapter is In Search of the Holy Grail of Truth (Or, I Don’t Quite Understand Your Question) - and it's in progress, but covers my experience testifying at the Texas State Board of Education in 2003 and this year (well late 2008 - and there's another hearing next week!), conflicting views on "truth" and how and why people come to believe what we believe.

The next chapter, There is a Striking Resemblance Between You and a Monkey, is about my travels to Colorado to spend Easter with the Epperson family, who were involved in the landmark 1968 Supreme Court case Epperson v. Arkansas that essentially overturned the infamous 1929 Scopes Monkey Trial which confirmed that it was ok to make teaching (human) evolution illegal. I love the title of this chapter! It's actually what someone said in a letter to Susan Epperson during the time of the Supreme Court battle back in the 1960s. The things people say! Yes, as a matter of fact there is a striking resemblance between you (and me) and a monkey!

So that's where I'm at now, completing and organizing and writing these first few chapters - the first half of the book. I've already done the excursions and such for the rest of the chapters too (which include narrative chapters on young earth creationism, and one on intelligfent design, among others). I'm having a lot of fun with it all, and am very excited about my progress! Prayers are much appreciated!!

In Austin

The view from on top of Enchanted Rock, a giant batholith. Enchanted Rock State Park, Texas. I visited this for my Top of Texas cover story for Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. It was dusk and the light was gorgeous!
Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

I'm sitting in the Texas State Board of Education hearings for their Board meeting, which will today allow for public testimony over the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). Just wanted to mention a Houston Chronicle Evosphere blog that is updating the situation in real time. At 11am there was a press conference in which Texas Freedom Network Director Kathy Miller first spoke followed by a couple UT professors including Dr Andy Ellington whose talk was great. I'm going to get it and put it online when I get a copy. The weather today is gorgeous!

Last night I stayed with Debbie Pagell, documentary producer from the Cultural Film Fund, which is producing It's Your World, the ecotravel series which was being filmed on my trek through Nepal with Tim Gorski, Jon Kane and Mei-Ling McNamara. We went to eat at this awesome restaurant Vivo, which has margaritas infused with hibiscus... yum! And at the end of the meal, they delivered to each of us a wonderfully fragrant long-stemmed pink rose! Apparently they do that for every single person who eats there. How cool is that? Check out this Youtube video created from footage filmed on the trek I was on!! I have photos of these exact same shots they video'd (at the above link back in history on my blog...)

My latest pubs

Trekking Through Nepal's Grand Ridges, Travel Channel Online. This piece covers 3 trips in Nepal - In Search of the Red Panda, Everest Base Camp, and a no-trekking cultural trip to the Annapurnas. Three of the photos in the piece also are by me (the first two and the last one).

Boom Time, Points of Interest Dept. Smithsonian Magazine. April 2008. "As the sun rises over the tallgrass prairie, one of the last wild Attwater's prairie chickens performs an unusual mating dance, called booming because of the low "woo woo" sounds the male emits."

Cougar Country: Are mountain lions running out of room? Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. April 2008 Cover Story. (not online yet but within a couple weeks will be online at http://www.tpwmagazine.com/)

speaking of butt hairs...

Every time I think about that message Savannah just posted, it makes me chuckle, and speaking of chuckling and butt hairs in the same sentence reminds me of my ol' friend Chuckles who I met in Nepal. I know he won't mind me blogging about this because he blogged about it on his own blog (how many times can I use the words blog, chuckle/s and butt hairs in just a few sentences? Sheesh, it's starting to sound like a Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers or somethin'). I would link to it but I think if some of my younger readers read his many &%$X* words and saw some of the videos, they may be scarred for life. So, the other day I was telling my girlfriends about how when I was in Nepal there was a guy who got his butt hairs in a wad and got such bad hemorrhoids that he had to go to the hospital. They thought that was very funny indeed. But the sad thing, besides the fact that I really DO have bad hearing, I have really awful space cadet syndrome and I can not remember for the life of me who I was telling this story to. Amy and Melody maybe? So if you are out there, comment!!!

Now this would ordinarily not be such a funny story I suppose because the poor guy was in so much pain that he literally could not walk toward the end of the trip. I guess that is what happens, I said, when you have to go 12 days without bathing or showering and you're basically pooping in a hole in the ground inside a tent. OK sometimes when we visited teahouses or familes we did have a glorified porcelain-lined hole in the ground, but it was still a hole in the ground. No flusher. And little bricks you stick your feet on. No TP unless you bring your own. And you had to squat and then whoosh your goodies down with a bucket of amoeba-infested water. Ah the joys of Nepal. Or the joy of knowing that journey is in my distant memory!

So Chuckles kept us all laughing I can say that for sure. He is quite the character!! He's a photographer who I met in Nepal who was traveling with the rest of the Cultural Film Fund crew who were filming a documentary series on environmentally conscious travel called It's Your World, and this leg was on Nepal and the red panda. He and I sat next to each other on the bus on the first leg of our journey, before we started trekking by foot, and shared his ipod. For a few short days, we became Wonder Twins...I used to LOVE that show! Wonder twin powers activate! Form of... water! Shape of.... a waterfall!! Or something like that!

Oh and being that they were a documentary crew, they filmed the whole hemorrhoidal thing - all the jokes, and the visit to the doc in Kathmandu, then wheelchairing him through the airport to Bangkok (we all traveled to Bangkok together) and then after I left, surgery in Bangkok when his "issues" just would not go away.

Anyway here is his version from his blog: (but first reading his blog reminded me of the time the porters put up our tent right ON TOP OF COW PATTIES!!! I had to tell them, "This will not do!!" They just didn't get it.)

so....after the last day of hiking....we too a jeep ride into the india side to get together with a friend of brians who is bulding a high end tea house / guest house.....we stayed and drank and froze....its still in the building process....but that morning on the way....i had HEMEROIDAL issues....so the 45 minute bumpy four wheelin drive....was not user friendly....the next day....was the same....but for six hours.....what a royal pain in the ass that was....the next day...brian decided to book he, myself and john kane (so it could be caught on film) an earlier flight back to katmandu so i could get to the clinic....while there....i saw 2 different doctors.... before i had a surgeon stick two painfully bent fingers where the sun dont shine.....

I told you I wasn't kidding! The things I see and hear in my career...

working away

I've been working hard while the kids are gone at their grandparents, trying to finish revising my book proposal. Yes, the same darn book proposal I've been working on for over 2 years! The first version was more of a straight narrative nonfiction type book, which I called The Fish Wars: How Evolution and Christianity Can Make Peace. My agent sent it around to publishers but it didn't fly for various reasons - too many competitors that were about to come out, I didn't have enough of a platform (i.e. I'm not a pastor or an academic scientist). But after meeting with my literary agency (the Carol Mann Agency) when I went to New York City in April, I came up with a new idea that we're very excited about.

This version is much more of a memoir, my personal story about how I became a Christian who accepts evolution, and what that means. It's more like Elizabeth Gilbert's eat, pray, love (which I love, by the way) than like one of the stuffy books about theology and religion and evolution. I hope to reach a far broader audience, and I can use my strength which is my writing style. So wish me luck, send good wishes and prayers as I'm getting close to being done with this new revision and then my agent will hopefully soon send it to publishers again!

My latest article is out in TX Parks & Wildlife Magazine's Annual Water Issue. This year's theme: The State of Lakes. As you may or may not know, Texas has only one natural lake, Caddo Lake. I covered the newly emerging concept of offchannel reservoirs in Dams on the Side: Off-channel reservoirs can help meet water needs while causing less environmental impact than dams that halt a river’s flow.

These are the books I want to read, or more correctly listen to (I don't have time to read these days, I just listen to audio-CDs when I run or drive around). Has anyone read any of these? Comments? Poisonwood Bible has been around for a long time but the rest are relatively new.

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
God After Darwin by John Haught
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

Did I tell you I got Sam a Robo Sapien? I think I blogged a couple Christmases ago about how Sam, Savannah and I just laughed so hard in Radio Shack while playing with a Robo Sapien and Robo Raptor. Well they were God-awful expensive ($200) and I said sorry, no way. But we had fun playing with it in the store. That year, Savannah was the only student in Holy Trinity middle school to get the Superior Achievement Award (which means she got a 95 overall average and never lower than a 90 in any class all year long) and I told Sam, who was about to enter middle school, that if he got that next year then I'd buy him a Robo Sapien! And what do you know, he did! In fact both my kids were the only 2 kids in middle school this year to earn than same award, and I'm very proud of them. Luckily the price has gone down some, and it's only $99.95. There's a V. 2 that has better gripping claws and more programming options. He's a pretty cool little dude. In fact that is what we named him, Dude.

Travels ahead - I'm going to the ASJA East Meets West conference at UC Berkeley Sep 29. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet editors from The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Wired, and Smithsonian. Other than National Geographic, those are my dream markets!! With a book possibly coming out sometime soon, this is a great networking opp.

I may be going to Nepal in November for a story on red pandas, more details soon, and I also WILL be leading a group either to Panama, Belize or Bolivia in Dec 07 or sometime in 2008. It will be a 10-day/9 night trip with lots of wildlife, rainforest and reef/beach time. If you're interested let me know!